Circe
The Circe is a semi-long-range artillery ship, with very consistent damaging abilities, but very little burst. It excels in dealing support damage to opponents for a high number of assists (and a few kills as well). Circe is also the 2nd best turret killing ship in the game, behind the ANT Mk. 1. Because it is a very long-ranged ship, watching the mini-map is an important skill in playing the Circe well. Loadout Last Updated 8/26. Bindu Bolts Unleashes multiple arcane bolts that aggressively seek enemies of the Sisterhood. Bindu Bolts are rapid firing clusters of small projectiles, which chase around nearby opponents. They home in on the closest opponent to you, be it player or drone, and if that opponent is destroyed, they will seek a new target. If no opponents are in range, they will stop moving. The Circe is slowed to 40% speed when shooting Bindu Bolts, reducing it's chasing capabilities. Bindu Bolts, though doing low damage individually, provide a very high overall damage if many bolts hit. Considering they are homing, and travel at a medium speed, the chance of this happening is pretty good. Opponents can use boost to try and avoid some of the bolts, but the chances are that some will still hit. Furthermore, Circe can shoot bolts from a relatively safe range, meaning that it can afford to have a few misses; it's not going to be traveling to the Cargo Bay very often. Bindu Bolts also provide a lot of area coverage; you can prevent opponents from charging your turrets by standing somewhere nearby, because the bolts will naturally home in from a distance. This is a great asset in preventing the opposing team from playing too aggressively. One thing to keep in mind when initially starting a match with Bindu Bolts is that it will be better to attack the drones with them rather than the players. This is because Drones will die far easier than players will, granting you lots of XP. Circe is slowed down when firing, so you aren't going to be collecting many VORP crystals. As a result, the XP you get from killing drones is really important in the very early game (but not in late game). In terms of turrets, Bindu Bolts are most useful taking out the center turrets in the early game (there is a great immunity spot on each side of the lane where your bolts will home around the sides, but the turrets can't hit you; beware of enemy players though) and for finishing off side turrets in mid to late game after a well-aimed Omen Sphere. Omen Sphere A lumbering unstable doom sphere that strikes at nearby enemies and detonates on contact. The Omen Sphere is a large ball of electrical matter which moves where you aimed it in a straight line. It is surrounded by a field of energy which will shock nearby enemies, dealing minor damage. However, upon collision with an enemy, it deals massive damage and destroys itself. The Omen Sphere bounces off of walls, buildings, and occasionally, ships. Upon shooting an Omen Sphere, the Circe will virtually halt in place (90% speed reduction) and visibly charge for 2 seconds, before firing, leaving the Circe especially vulnerable. Omen Spheres are destructible, but have a high health, making destruction unlikely. Omen Sphere is a great complimentary ability with Bindu Bolts. Rather than rely on the homing capabilities, which can be at times unreliable, Omen Sphere relies on your long-range aim. It is good to practice aiming your Omen Spheres at turrets from off screen. This is because Omen Sphere has a much longer range than a turret does, meaning if you hit it point-blank, you can do enormous amounts of damage. This technique is probably most effective in taking down side turrets. Do this by either aiming Omen Sphere at them from off screen, or by coming close enough that you can aim at them on screen, and tanking two Rainmaker shots. After that, circle around the turrets from a distance letting Bindu Bolts finish them off. This technique will usually take down Rainmaker turrets in about 8 seconds. Watch out for opponents though; they can disrupt your Bindu bolts and run into your omen sphere making it ineffective against the turret. One other use of the Omen Sphere is for area control. Much like Bindu Bolts, it has a long range, and though not homing, enemies try to avoid coming within the shocking radius, to avoid unnecessary damage (and to avoid hitting it, which can really hurt). You can use this to force enemies to retreat while your allies escape, or preventing them from retreating at low health, when they are stuck in your base. Use the distaste for going near the sphere to your advantage. A final use, of Omen Sphere which takes considerable practice, is using it to counter ships which are too close. Omen Sphere's collisions damage deals massive Burst; the only real 'Burst' Circe has. If a ship gets too close, chances are they won't notice you charging your Omen Sphere, and won't have time to get away as it hits them immediately after being fired. You may have to tank some damage, but they will likely be crippled by this attack (except for perhaps late-game Jabberwocky). You may even turn the tide of the duel and kill them. One thing that is essential to this strategy however is good aim; it does no good to try and melee them and then miss their ship. You need to hit them straight on. If you master this technique, and you will have the protecting from close-range opponents Circe desires. Ghost Field Summons Sisterhood ancestors in a psychic field to disrupt enemies while protecting Circe. Ghost Field is a medium-sized glowing field which provides Circe with a large damage reduction while inside. Circe can also turn extremely quickly inside the field, making it great if you have to escape in a jiffy. In addition, it slows opponents who attempt to enter the field. There are a few tricks which you can use with Ghost Field to your advantage. One of them involves using Space Fold's Temporary Health gain to heal yourself. Because the damage reduction from Ghost Field effects the DOT effect given by using Space Fold, you can actually come out with more health using Space Fold to teleport inside a Ghost Field. However, the amount of health usually isn't significant enough to warrant wasting your Space Fold cooldown over; it just is a useful skill in battle. You can also drop Ghost Field after teleporting next to an enemy to create a nearly unavoidable slow. This can help you hit them with your other attacks, as they will be slowed for several seconds after they leave the field as well. While Ghost Field can be useful; the other abilities of Circe tend to be even more useful. For this reason, it is suggested you leave upgrading Ghost Field for last, after upgrading the other abilities. However, this is by no means, a mandatory requirement. Space Fold Alexus folds space warping Circe short distances and harvesting a temporary energy boost. Space Fold teleports Circe a medium to medium-large distance ahead of itself. Circe will teleport forward until it either reaches the maximum distance, or runs into a barrier such as a drone, ally or enemy ship, building, or wall. In addition, Circe will obtain a slight heal upon teleport, however, this heal is lost in the few seconds after the teleport, leaving Circe at the HP it initially had. It has 3 charges, resulting in a max total jump of 360. Space Fold can be used like most other jump abilities. It is probably most useful for escaping the enemies which will inevitably attack you when trying to take down a turret on the enemies right-side-lane. However, it is great for escaping any enemy really. The extra temporary health is nice if you are low on health, but are close to a depot, however, except for a few nice tricks with Ghost Field, it doesn't really effect you that much. But the distance that can be jumped by using all 3 charges is a lifesaver. Space Fold can also be used aggressively to chase opponents. However, one should be cautious for using it to this purpose for two reasons. First off, it is unlikely Circe will be able to take down an enemy that's running away unless it is REALLY low on HP. Secondly, you are using up your ability to escape by chasing an opponent; you need to have an idea that nobody is going to come and chase you after you use your teleports up. This doesn't mean using it aggresively is useless; caution just needs to be taken before using it for that. Another techinchal use of space fold is for aiming your Omen Sphere. Sometimes an enemy runs away from you as you are attempting to melee them. By using Space Fold, you can reposition yourself for a successful hit. One final use, and an important one, is to bide time before a Deport (the OP). Often times, you will find yourself swarmed by many enemies, and don't have the capability to get away. By activating teleport, and then using Space Fold, you can bide your time, dodging some enemy damage, as well as gaining a temporary HP buff, before Deporting back to your Cargo Depot. This can save your life, and it's one of the reasons almost every Circe runs Deport. It's not quite as much of a guaranteed escape as a Hirudo or Iron Wolf with Deport, but it's very reliable nonetheless. Hull Circe is actually quite a bulky ship, but who's against making it even MORE bulky? Not me! And I'm guessing not you either! Upgrade Ordering Early Game There is really only two ways to specialize a Circe early, and they aren't really that different from each other, in playstyle or upgrade ordering. I play conservatively: W -> Q -> W -> Q -> W -> R. This build prioritizes your damage, and waits to grab the Space Fold till Q and W are maxed out. Play this if you usually stay behind people a lot, or if there isn't a lot of enemies to burst you down (like in a 3 v 3 match). This will help you stay on top of other enemies; you will rarely fall behind. At the 6th upgrade, grab Space Fold, and you are ready to start taking down side-turrets. I want an escape button: W -> Q -> R -> Q -> W -> W. This build uses a Space Fold as it's 3rd Upgrade so you have an escape option. Why the 3rd upgrade? Well, it's because Bindu Bolts lvl 1 is rather weak, and you need to have an Omen Sphere to help your team out. Thus, the 3rd upgrade is the optimum place to put it. This can shift a bit to the right if you feel you need a bit more damage. In any case, Because it's in the 3rd position, we kick an Omen Sphere all the way to the 6th upgrade. Why? Because Bindu Bolts is more useful early game, especially in terms of damage. You aren't attacking the side-turrets early game; we'll do that late game, and that's when we will have Omen Sphere fully upgraded. Late Game Believe it or not, there is also two ways to play late game as well, though again, they aren't very different from each other. Circe's nice like that though; it allows you tweak things a tiny bit to deal with your specific game I need more escapability: R -> R -> Hull -> Hull -> Hull -> E -> E -> E. This maximizes your teleport before your hull. Now why would you want to do this? You already have a fully charged teleport capability of 240? Well the answer is... sometimes that will be enough... and sometimes it won't. If you find yourself needing more range, you need to upgrade your Space Fold. It can make a really big difference. Even better; sometimes the distance will be so large that the enemy will just give up chasing you (even though you realize they might have been able to catch up). This means that upgrading this make it very difficult to catch you. What do you sacrifice? Well, you aren't as bulky as the other build. And sometimes Space Fold by itself just isn't enough to save you from an inevitable death. So really, you have to judge for yourself; do I want a stronger Space Fold or do I want more bulk? I want more HP: Hull -> Hull -> Hull -> R -> R -> E -> E -> E. Every ship likes having some bulk, but Circe is obsessed with it. It's HP reaches well over 3000 without these upgrades; with them you are approaching 4000 (of course, the game will rarely reach that point likely; you or the enemy's shields will probably be down by then). 4000 HP makes enemies hesitate. They can't just take you down easily. They need a teammate. And of course, even if they do get you down, you have the one point in Space Fold from the early build to save the day. Ultimately, that bulk make Circe just that much more effective at killing things. So what are the consequences? Well, you don't have a super-strong space fold. This means certain ships, like Ant, Angelfire, and Turbo Hawk are likely to catch up to you. Now whether they will kill you or not, that's not a sure case... but you do at times start wishing you had upgraded that Space Fold. Because being swarmed and then chased just isn't all that fun. So is it worth the hull upgrades? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. You should choose what you need most for your match. Tips & Tricks